White Industries is a sub-contract foundry producing castings for a wide range of industries, such as general engineering, rail, mining, automotive, road transport and agriculture. The company provides Australia-wide services from its manufacturing facility in Dalby. Craig White, CEO, writes below about the major benefits to the company of its engagement with, and investment in the Trades Future Program at the Dalby State High School as well as the young people going through the program.
In 2011, when a Trade Training Centre was proposed for Dalby State High school, the planners spoke to local businesses that had apprentices to identify what they were looking for and how the Centre should be shaped.
From day one White Industries jumped on board and we are now a major sponsor of the program. We supply each student with a tool kit when they first start, which includes basic tools that will cover most trades, becoming part of each student’s own property. White Industries sponsors the Dux board for the program, rewarding the student who both demonstrates their skills and shows a desire to further themselves in their chosen career path.
I talk to the students at the commencement of the program, when they are presented with their tool bags, where I cover what a trade will mean to them and where can they go with it in the future.
White Industries has also supplied the Trade Training Centre with equipment that they’ve required since the beginning of the program. It is estimated that close to $100,000 worth of equipment has been donated to the Centre.
Our major commitment to this program is seen as a way for the company to give back to the town, to enthuse the young people of Dalby, and to support the young people we employ. Doing this provides us with an opportunity to attract the best students that come out of the program.
The Dalby Trade Training Centre currently enjoys an 88 per cent success rate with students undertaking their program. Students must apply for a position within the program as only 25 places are available in the program each year. The selection criteria are based on attitudes rather than grades, with Centre staff looking for young people who are passionate about what they want to do and what they want to achieve in life. The majority of staff within the Centre are tradespeople themselves and so have experience and empathy when shaping the young candidates.
White Industries has struggled in the past to explain to students what it is that we do and to excite young people into joining the industry. This year we have engaged more closely with the teachers to plan an activity whereby young people will draw up a waffle iron, make a pattern and then come onsite to make a mould. We will allow them to hold the dummy end of the ladle and poor molten metal into their mould. This will allow them to see what they are capable of doing and take away a casting. That casting will then go back to the Centre, they’ll fettle it, drill it, make handles for it and assemble it. Most of the country kids will actually be able to use what they’ve made.
This jointly organised activity provides an example of White Industries thinking outside the square to engage with young people and allow them to understand who we are, what we do and how we can entice them to be part of our exciting trade.
